Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Clearly, this would be a bad E3 to miss. Thankfully us lookee-loos can just ogle google.news and RSS feeds. They're throwing out some real zingers.

Playstation 3 for $499/$599Sony said it would be expensive and they kept their word. The $499 model with a 20GB hard drive is going to have to contend with Microsoft's $399 with precisely the same size drive. Sony is going to have to prove their case that the console is worth the extra cash. This and the fact that it will undoubtably be in low supply and forced into even more expensive bundles at launch (just like the 360 and PSP was) means fewer early adopters for Sony this year.

Update: I guess the low end PS3 has no wifi ... and no memory card slots? That's potentially beyond idiotic. Update update: Not sure if it's no card slots or fewer ... but either way it's dumb.

PS3 Goes The Way Of WiiSo the new PS3 controller will look quite like the PS2 controller but be able to have gyroscopic control somewhat like the Wii controller. I haven't had time to look at the videos, but I'm guessing the experience won't be quite like the Wii. For one thing, Nintendo very intentionally designed their new controller to be simpler and less scary - a distinction that shouldn't be overlooked.

It's kinda fascinating though. Where Nintendo innovates, others follow. Rumble, analog, shoulder buttons, gyroscopes, whatever. It would not be a surprise if Microsoft releases a "gyro enabled" controller later this year. People have, quite inaccurately, been predicting the death of Nintendo for years now. They better hope they stay wrong, otherwise the console world will clearly become a duller place.

Microsoft confirms USB HD-DVD for the 360No real surprise, obviously. This is more of a boon for Toshiba and the HD-DVD franchise than anyone else, as they hope that 360 buyers will opt into the format even if they look to bypass yet another expensive toy. Sony is possibly betting that their Blu-Ray support will help justify the extra cost of a PS3.